What’s In A Rescue? (Thistle Cavies Newsletter)
Thistle Cavies shared their experiences of so called “rescues” in their January 2010 newsletter. All too often breeders are referred to as ‘uncaring’ and “bad sources” to get guinea pigs from, and there are cases where this is true, what is rarely commented upon is that exactly the same can be said of some “rescues”, which is, of course, even more dangerous because of the trust that people have in an outfit that professes to be “helping” guinea pigs. See the Reputable Sources page for a guide to finding a guinea pig.
“We recieve many emails about piggies adopted from other Rescues around the whole of the UK. Some are about piggies that turn out to be sick others are about conditions at a Rescue.We have had mails from people concerned that a Rescue would rehome Rabbits and Guinea Pigs together. Rescues that have boars put to sleep because they were impacted.Rescues that are also breeding. Rescues that are rehoming piggies to live outside in the winter and on sawdust.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At Thistle we are very fussy as to where our piggies are rehomed to, everyone has to comply with our standards. We refuse many people piggies for one reason or another. It is our belief that piggies that come into Rescue should only go to top class homes. Many of these piggies have had a really tough time and the last thing they need is another mediocre home. To address a few of the points in the above paragraph:
Piggies rehomed with Rabbits is just not on, they are separate species and Rabbits can do an awful lot of damage to a piggy and vica versa. Their needs are totally different.No self respecting Rescue would allow this.
To have a boar pts for being impacted is beyond words. This is part and parcel of Rescue work, not every piggy is in perfect health, some cannot be rehomed.Impaction is very easily and speedily dealt with taking only a few seconds a couple or so times a day depending on the piggy, some only need clearing out once or twice a week. I am totally disgusted that any Rescue would do this also that a vet would allow it.
To rehome a piggy from a heated environment to live in a hutch in the garden on sawdust (in winter), again words fail me on this. The piggy has no time to acclimatise itself to the colder conditions. Many have died and some have been ‘lucky’ and ended up with frostbite to their ears and other extremeties.Absolutely no decent Rescue would even consider sawdust/woodshavings as bedding. They have a duty to know the harm it causes.This product is used for their own convenience and cost, nothing to do with the welfare of the piggies.
Breeding to sell to the public whilst being a Rescue is to shoot yourself in the foot……you may as well keep the pups and just fill up your cages, save other Rescues takeing them in at a later date!!!!!
The five freedoms should be known to everyone in animal welfare.
There will always be piggies coming in that cannot be rehomed for one reason or another and that will need special care for the rest of their lives. This can be expensive and time consuming and if you cannot give that time, effort and money then you should not be setting yourself up as a Rescue.
In summary, these types of Rescues do little good but do the Guinea Pig a great disservice, putting their care back by decades and ruining all the effort and work put in by the proper Rescues to promote good husbandry for these little mammals.
We can honestly say that all our piggies go to very good homes, yes this can mean piggies sometimes have to stay with us for long periods but rather this than a less than suitable home. We have many pensioner piggies and ill piggies that need daily meds, impactions cleared daily, would we dream of have any pts because of this? Never, we would only ever euthanise a piggy if he/she was suffering in some way and it was in the best interest of the piggy to have this done.
January 17, 2010 Posted in: Rescue